September 28, 2012 7:18 am

St. Louis Rams defensive back Cortland Finnegan (31) is guarded by Washington Redskins tight end Niles Paul (84) on a Washington Redskins touchdown run during the first quarter of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

In my story today, The St. Louis Rams corners should present a tough test for Seattle’s receivers on Sunday.

Seven-year veteran Cortland Finnegan and rookie Janoris Jenkins aren’t as tall and lanky as their Seattle counterparts Brandon Browner and Richard Sherman. Both are about 5-10 and 190 pounds, but are feisty playmakers that play physical out on the perimeter.

Finnegan is tied for second in the league in interceptions with three, including one returned for a 31-yard scored against Detroit in Week 1. Finnegan also kicks inside in nickel situations, and is known for trash talking around the league.

“You want him on your team on the football field, because the way he plays with that feistiness,” said Seattle defensive lineman Jason Jones, who played with Finnegan for four years at Tennessee. “He definitely knows how to get under your skin, do little things and talk to you. He’s definitely going to talk to you.”

Jenkins has 17 tackles and an interception on the year. Together, they’ve helped the Rams hold teams to just two passing touchdowns on the year, tied for first in the league. Seattle is last in the league in passing, averaging 127.7 yards a contest.

Clare Farnsworth of Seahawks.com reports that a pair of former Seahawks – Sam Adams and Ricky Waters along with former Seattle coaches Chuck Know and Tom Flores are among the preliminary nominees for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Matt Williamson of Scouts Inc. provides some advance scouting of this weekend’s Seahawks-Rams matchup. Williamson writes that one key positions battle will be Sam Bradford against Seattle’s safeties, along with James Laurinaitis stopping Marshawn Lynch in the run game. He likes Seattle 20-6. You must be an ESPN Insider to view this.

Derek Stephens at ScoutTheSeahawks.com offers some personnel notes from Monday night’s Packers game. He thinks Russell Wilson is having trouble seeing the field from inside the pocket, and believes that Golden Tate is a better option as a slot receiver.

Kathleen Nelson of the St. Louis Post Dispatch writes that the Rams have a lot of respect for Russell Wilson. “I’ve been watching Russell Wilson play since he was in high school,” said Rams defensive end Chris Long, who hails from the same part of Virginia as Wilson. “He’s an excellent athlete. Believe it or not, he was just as good at baseball, too. He was fun to watch in college. He does a great job playing within their system, but when things break down, he can use his athleticism.”

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About

Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

Feeds

I would suspect this will be the game that RW shows a little arm. You don’t have your rookie QB try and air it out against the likes of Demarcus Ware or Clay Matthews if you don’t have to. I believe the biggest part of our offense will be on the receivers. Look for RW to stay in the pocket more during this game, looking for receivers. Will they show up? Also look for Bradford to be spending alot of time on his back.

If Marshawn Lynch keeps running like he has been, the Rams will have a tough time winning this one. They’ve lost 13 of the last 14 to the Seahawks. I almost feel sorry for them. The Seahawks did not dominate any of the AFC West teams for so long, not even the Chargers.

I was one of many who recieved the Goodell comments essentially saying that he was sorry they could not conclude the negotiations earlier. The note allowed return commentary. Here’s mine:

I live in Seattle and have not enjoyed the reaction to the bad officiating, especially after the Monday night game. I would like to register my disappointment over your statement about the game. You chose to focus on the determining play and upheld the decision on the field. That is where your commentary should have stopped. To point out that the Seattle player had earlier in the play committed an infraction was totally unnecessary. If you were going to make any comments on the officiating (other than to accept or overturn a ruling), and I do not think you should have, you should not single out that perticular play as a salve to those complaining about the “catch.” This was unfair and somewhat inflammatory. For example, in the game the same officials called a 3rd down penalty on a Seattle player that even the announcers questioned and wondered how the call could have possibly been right. You could have mentioned this play, which kept their drive alive and resulted eventually in their only touchdown. And then of course you could have gone through the entire game and found several instances where either a Green Bay player or a Seattle player committed a rules infraction. But this would have made a circus of the whole thing. Nevertheless, your decision to say something about the Seattle infraction, obvious as it was, was not fair or balanced. There were so many examples of poor officiating that weekend. The NE game stood out. NE committed infractions, especially on a critical drive late in the game. But there were even more flagrant calls made against them including one that was preposterous (we saw the entire play and the NE player never even touched the Baltimore player) and allowed to continue its only touchdown drive of the game.

All of this is simply to criticise your selective commentary. The bad officiating cannot be overturned, I understand that. But neither should player infractions not called be pointed out, unless you were to cite numerous such examples.

Derek Stephens continues to provide good analisis on the Seahawks imo.

And I’m not so sure this will be the game that Wilson airs it out more. The Rams have a very good pass defense. And we don’t need to air it out to win this game. Just keep playing the way we are.

My guess is that the passing will open up more in the Carolina game or the Patriot game.

Ridiculous post of the day- coming in response to an ESPN article about Tate admitting to pushing off.-

“SteelCurtain3405I find it funny that this is a story. The seahawks are in a miserable division, have no history besides getting spanked by the steelers a few years back in the super bowl. We gotta stop talking about Seattle unless were discussing the DC Sounders”

Yeah Georgia, kind of agree, but I do feel That RW will be a little more comfortable in the pocket this game, which could translate to a little more of the passing game. I like the TE sets that we have shown a few times, and if our receivers can get some separation, Wilson might take a few shots. I agree that the Carolina or Pats games will be where we see some downfield action. I just hope the play calling on offense isn’t so predictable this game, and the penalties have to go.

Had a Stealer fan rant at me about the officiating last night. Was kind of fun throwing it back in his face.

Rams do have a decent secondary. They also have improved pass rushing. Combine that with the possibility that the right side of the line could consist of Sweezy and Omalye, then you better believe they’re going to pound it on the ground. I do worry that they’ll overwork Lynch though. Hope he has some gas in the tank going down the stretch.

You have to keep running Lynch ; their corners are trash talkers and will almost certainly give Tate a ration about Monday night . It’s in their house , and the crew officiating the game is known for allowing aggressive play with few penalties . The entire league will be frothing at the mouth for us to lose this game , believing that somehow we cheated the Packers out of a win .

No , I’m afraid this won’t be pretty , and if they start Carpenter at LG it’s another line change . Run the ball & keep playing that stellar defense , keep our mouths shut when they yak at us and get the W .

Sherman was a rec in college maybe we should work him into the offense for a few plays this week. The trash talking between him and Finnegan could be legendary especially if Sherman works Finnegan for a score.

If PC wants to go “Ground Chuck” I’m all in. Coach Knox showed that running the ball, playing good defense, taking the ball away, and not giving it away was a blueprint for winning. At one point Know was criticized as boring. After he left and we went 2-14 we found out winning is not boring but losing sure is. Keep RW growing but let’s not mess with a winning formula.

It really doesn’t matter much to me to hear about how improved the Rams are. I’ve been hearing and/or reading about that for the last 4 years or so. Are they good enough to beat the Seahawks? I don’t think so. Prisco says they’re going to hang 20 pts. on the Seahawks defense. How? Seriously, what does this guy spike his coffee with in the mornings?

If the Rams secondary is that good, then they’ll have no worries about loading the box to stop Marshawn, which should open up the passing game. Anthony McCoy had better have his head together this game because he could be a huge factor in this one. The Rams might have excellent CB’s, but their safeties are fairly ordinary, and I’m not seeing much in the way of their LB’s on the roster that match up with McCoy either. McCoy should be a big match up problem for them if he brings his brain with him to the St. Louis.

This is a big test for Golden. Cortland Finnegan isn’t a real big CB, but he plays a lot bigger than he is, and against shorter WR’s like Tate, he is very effective.

Excellent point, ruminator1. Why foment resentment against one, particular player, and by extension, one particular team, in a half-a**ed effort toward appeasement? As you noted, there were plenty of ill-advised calls in that game.

This game scares the hell out of me. I remember back a few years when we finally beat the Rams at their place and Rocky Bernard makes an on-field comment about finally getting the monkey off our back and beating them in their house. That seems so long ago now.

Fast forward to today and here’s why I’m pretty worried about this game.

1. It’s a divisional opponent on the road.

2. St. Louis has played pretty damn good ball so far this year.

3. We’re coming off a huge emotional win on a short week.

4. We’re traveling and it’s a 10 AM kickoff.

5. The St. Louis offensive line is decimated with injuries. (See Huskies vs Stanford.)

I disagree completely. If Jennings could have modeled his game after Finnegan, he’d probably probably have a job about now. There is a big difference between the two. Finnegan plays with the kind of aggression, and physical style that Jennings simply is not capable of. And for the record, Jennings is taller than Finnegan.

Sek…..It was more of a joke. My son is huge Titans fan and probably knows more about football than the average adult. So I have head about every player and move for the last few years. I know he plays physical. I also didn’t realize that Jennings was actually taller. Maybe I perceived Jennings as being shorter since he got burnt so often. I’m just not a fan of how Finnegan conducts himself.

Football players play physically.. not physical.. I realize this is too much to expect from in game Color Commentators.. but I would hope a Journalist would use an adjective properly… I have hope that those Color Commentators would actually learn the proper use of an adverb, so all the 8 year olds out there watching the game don’t grow up thinking the Rams’ CBs ‘play physical’ is correct.. because after all it is now their job to use the English language.. One would think they would eventually be counselled on how to use an adverb properly… Sorry for the rant, but you’re better than that.

Now let’s see the Hawks travel for a 10AM start and take another step and return with a victory..

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